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Michael Korda recommended The Ruling Class (1972) in Movies (curated)
Lost Souls of Horror and the Gothic: Fifty-Four Neglected Authors, Actors, Artists and Others
Elizabeth McCarthy and Bernice M. Murphy
Book
Horror and Gothic in all of their various forms have penetrated the cultural mainstream in a manner...
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Stone Tape in TV
Feb 22, 2020
Acclaimed ghost story for TV looks slightly dated now but is still likely to put the wind up the unwary. Scientists investigating a haunted house jump to one conclusion too many. Ghostwatch's only serious rival for the title of spookiest thing ever made on videotape, The Stone Tape is notable for the way in which it manages to combine a genuine science-fiction approach with proper supernatural horror: the characters think they've managed to come up with a testable rationale for residual hauntings, but their inability to fully work out how the 'stone tape' operates leads to a climax quite unlike anything else in TV horror. Interesting subtext about gender politics in the workplace, too.
It is nearly fifty years old, made using quite primitive TV technology, quite talky, etc, etc, all of which probably counts against it for modern audiences. But it is interesting to look back to a time when British TV networks made horror for the brain.
It is nearly fifty years old, made using quite primitive TV technology, quite talky, etc, etc, all of which probably counts against it for modern audiences. But it is interesting to look back to a time when British TV networks made horror for the brain.
The Shining
Book
Stanley Kubrick hailed The Shining as 'the scariest horror film of all time' before its release in...
The Trollenberg Terror (1958)
5.8
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Movie
British-made SF movie. Scientists discover a series of grisly deaths on a Swiss mountainside are...
Code Black: Cut off and Facing Overwhelming Odds: the Siege of Nad Ali
Mark Evans and Andrew Sharples
Book
'A fast-paced, thrilling account of British heroism, brave men surrounded and fighting against...
Awix (3310 KP) rated In Fabric (2018) in Movies
Aug 7, 2019 (Updated Aug 9, 2019)
Playfully bonkers British comedy-horror, which plays rather like a mash-up of Mike Leigh and Dario Argento, as pastiched by the League of Gentlemen. A woman makes the mistake of buying a cursed dress (from a department store which appears to be run by witches) and finds herself assailed by increasingly bizarre events.
A knowingly silly homage to various seventies horror movies, but done with great style and deftness - the movie shifts from absurd comedy to something with genuine pathos to a sequence of the utmost weirdness and back again, barely putting a foot wrong. The pseudo-portmanteau style is a bit wrong-footing if you're not expecting it and the first segment of the film is certainly stronger than the rest, but this is a very funny and always interesting film.
A knowingly silly homage to various seventies horror movies, but done with great style and deftness - the movie shifts from absurd comedy to something with genuine pathos to a sequence of the utmost weirdness and back again, barely putting a foot wrong. The pseudo-portmanteau style is a bit wrong-footing if you're not expecting it and the first segment of the film is certainly stronger than the rest, but this is a very funny and always interesting film.
Awix (3310 KP) rated An American Werewolf in London (1981) in Movies
May 17, 2021
Off-beat horror comedy. Two American backpackers travelling through Europe are attacked by a ferocious beast in the Yorkshire Dales; one of them is horribly slaughtered, the other is less fortunate.
In with a shout as the best werewolf movie ever, although this is partly because of the lack of serious competition. The story hits all the usual beats, but is elevated by a knowing sense of humour (and jokes which really land) and Rick Baker's still-impressive make-up effects (it's hard to know which sequence Landis seems more fascinated by, the transformation or Jenny Agutter in the shower). A fascination with the weirdness of British culture, along with a supporting cast of great character actors, also helps to make the film distinctive. Very funny, very scary, occasionally very gory; a great horror movie.
In with a shout as the best werewolf movie ever, although this is partly because of the lack of serious competition. The story hits all the usual beats, but is elevated by a knowing sense of humour (and jokes which really land) and Rick Baker's still-impressive make-up effects (it's hard to know which sequence Landis seems more fascinated by, the transformation or Jenny Agutter in the shower). A fascination with the weirdness of British culture, along with a supporting cast of great character actors, also helps to make the film distinctive. Very funny, very scary, occasionally very gory; a great horror movie.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Witchfinder General (1968) in Movies
May 10, 2018
Famously nasty cult horror movie looks a bit like another Poe-Corman-Price adaptation (and was marketed as such in the States) but is really the work of a much darker sensibility. No actual supernatural elements, just people being sadistic to each other in the middle of a vicious civil war.
The story is a pretty standard revenge melodrama, made distinctive by the sheer bleakness of tone throughout the movie. At a time when pretty much every Hammer movie concluded with the defeat of the forces of evil (at least until the next sequel) the sheer amoral nihilism of Witchfinder General is distinctive.
Notable for the closest thing to a completely straight performance you will ever find Vincent Price contributing as the star of a horror movie, and also for the censor-troubling levels of violence and general grisliness. As is standard for British horror films of this period, fun is also to be had spotting youthful appearances by people who went on to have rather distinguished appearances in less extreme material.
The story is a pretty standard revenge melodrama, made distinctive by the sheer bleakness of tone throughout the movie. At a time when pretty much every Hammer movie concluded with the defeat of the forces of evil (at least until the next sequel) the sheer amoral nihilism of Witchfinder General is distinctive.
Notable for the closest thing to a completely straight performance you will ever find Vincent Price contributing as the star of a horror movie, and also for the censor-troubling levels of violence and general grisliness. As is standard for British horror films of this period, fun is also to be had spotting youthful appearances by people who went on to have rather distinguished appearances in less extreme material.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) in Movies
Mar 4, 2018 (Updated Mar 4, 2018)
The original Hammer horror movie; the studio did actually know how to spell 'experiment', but the title refers to the 'X' certificate that all self-respecting horror films had at the time this was made. Astronaut comes back from space a changed man; the rest of his crew mysteriously vanished - just what went on out there? Professor Q must figure it out before the mutation afflicting the astronaut reaches its final form.
Actually really, really tame as a horror movie by modern standards, obviously, but also of great historical interest as the birth of a legend in British cinema. One can't help suspecting the TV show was a lot more thoughtful, but this still works pretty well as an SF movie, and an influential one at that, and the juxtaposition of B-movie SF ideas and images with post-war Britain is interesting. Imported American star Brian Donlevy is not very good as Professor Q (original writer Nigel Kneale claimed he was on the sauce all the time); Richard Wordsworth is mesmerising as the doomed astronaut.
Actually really, really tame as a horror movie by modern standards, obviously, but also of great historical interest as the birth of a legend in British cinema. One can't help suspecting the TV show was a lot more thoughtful, but this still works pretty well as an SF movie, and an influential one at that, and the juxtaposition of B-movie SF ideas and images with post-war Britain is interesting. Imported American star Brian Donlevy is not very good as Professor Q (original writer Nigel Kneale claimed he was on the sauce all the time); Richard Wordsworth is mesmerising as the doomed astronaut.